I roomed with dad and camp was pretty good. I had fun, and learnt a lot at the same time. The camp was held at Batu Pahat, Malaysia. It's a less developed region of Malaysia, but far from the worst you can possibly find in Malaysia. It was quite contrasting from Singapore and larger cities in Malaysia like KL and JB because there were hardly any high-rise buildings within sight. The hotel we stayed in was the most advanced, with 15 levels. Level 4 and 14 were missing in the lift buttons because there was the inauspicious "4" in them, but that was compensated by levels L and M. The hotel was probably of a 3-star standard, but the food was so good that not a single person had stomach problems (it was usual to have one or two cases of food poisoning in hotels of better rating during church camps). The next most advanced place within sight from my room window was the shopping centre. It was comparable to an old shopping centre in Singapore, but with air conditioning. The rest of my view was mainly old cars lined up in big car parks and dusty plots of land. The houses there are what we refer to as bungalows, widely spaced and pretty large. But the architecture was not advanced and they looked like stuffy places to live in. This was the best place to have a church camp in because it took us away from some of the luxuries of life, and reminded me to be thankful for what I have.

The theme for the camp was "效法基督，成为见证", which was the same as the church's theme for this year. I learnt so much I don't think I can type out everything here. Reading the bible for understanding was one of the most important lessons I learnt. I've been in cai liang cd's 查经 (sorry for the intensive amount of Chinese I'm using but I think this means "reading/interpreting the bible" in English) class for quite a few weeks and so he's been teaching Jacky, Jethro and I the basics of reading the bible. The Observation, Interpretation and Application concept. During the sermons, I noticed how the speaker used the concept and how he interpreted the bible. I saw plenty of examples and even simple stories like the prodigal son were were related to the camp theme. I also realised how every single Chinese character mattered, and that in some books, an English-Chinese parallel bible shed new light on important details. More importantly, seeing how all that I learnt in church linked up with how the speaker spoke, I now see the reading the bible in a better light. As a kid who grew up in a Christian environment, I am very familiar with all the bible stories and read the thick book a few times, but it was all on a very shallow level. Therefore, this was one of the things that impacted me the most during the camp.

It's impossible to type out the things I learnt because it requires a chain of thought. If I type it out, it'll become a sermon script. I'll move on to other aspects of the camp. There were many things to be thankful about during the camp. First, there was trouble at the Singapore immigration when we were trying to enter Malaysia because the instruments packed along couldn't clear the customs. The church had sent a letter to a immigration authority, but they didn't do anything to it. When the instruments reached the border, the officers wanted to confiscate it. I was quite worried because singing without instruments would be weird. Sure it wasn't that much of a problem, but instruments were created by God so that people could use them to praise Him, and they are used to enhance worship. It took time, effort and prayer to get them through. The people in the bus carrying the equipment had to wait for over an hour while the church negotiated with the supervisor. In the end, the instruments cleared the border.

Another incident occurred on Day 3, regarding durians. The activity for the time slot on Day 2 was supposed to be going shopping or eating durians. Due to the majority winning, the durian-eating event lost, so we went shopping. The speaker saw how some people wanted to eat durians but couldn't because the durians had to be ordered in bulk and wasn't cheap either. On Day 3, he surprised everyone when he said he had a friend who was willing to deliver 120kg of durians and other fruit. When he asked the friend how much it would cost, the friend said it was on him. All the pro-durian people (about 90%) were able to enjoy the afternoon snack and this was really quite a blessing, and something to give thanks for.

I was a group leader during the camp. There weren't as many youth this year as compared to other years partly because the camp was held on the last week of June. The median age among the youth was 18. My group consisted of sec 1s and 3s. There were no sec 2s and I was the only sec 4 who seemed free enough to go for camp. The sec1s were really quiet and did not want to share much. They scared me when they said they didn't learn a single thing on the first day, so I decided we would pray for them and see what happened. The next day, they were able to open up a bit and shared what they learnt. I know I wasn't a really good group leader, because my social and leadership skills are err... __________, but there's a whole lifetime to gain more experience.

I discovered my interest in drinking coffee a few days ago. There were bags of coffee packets lying on the refreshment table, so I decided to try drinking coffee, also with the purpose of attempting to use the caffeine effect during the sermons. But after taking a a sip, I suddenly realised that coffee didn't taste bad at all. I used to dislike coffee and tea when I was younger. But just at that moment, the coffee suddenly tasted friendly. What's more amazing, I managed to sleep at night (morning). I can't remember how many cups of coffee I drank. When my grandmother saw me drinking coffee, she was stunned/shell shocked and quickly asked me if I was ok. I told her coffee actually tasted good and she looked quite puzzled because she was still reminiscing the times when I proclaimed my anti-coffeeism to her. I told her to try the coffee and she also started to like it. Another convert. As if it were some occasion worth celebrating, she bought a bag of coffee for me and one for herself just now. She came up with a mission for me - to spread the love for coffee to my family, starting with dad.

I slept past midnight for all three nights. The sleeping time was supposed to be 10pm, but of course no one sleeps that early and people still have to shower and all that after the night activities. For the first night, I decided to watch TV (channel 5 and 8 were available) and /tried/ to do homework. The second night, went out to the older people's room. We played cards and watched TV. The last night was a long sharing session at wei xuan's room. All the youth were there, err except for a few. We talked till almost 1am, then I went to sleep. The rest went to another room and played till 2am. I already had trouble surviving this morning and if I didn't sleep, I'd be even more tired.

That sums up a fun and meaningful camp. I'm dead tired so I'm going to sleep now. Tomorrow is another long day.